Keynote Speakers
Avi Berman
Avi Berman, Ph. D. is a clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst, training analyst and a group analyst. He is a member in Tel- Aviv Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis and The Israeli Institute of Group Analysis. He is the initiator and co-founder of the Israeli Institute of Group Analysis and its first chairperson. He is the head of group psychotherapy track in Tel Aviv University's psychotherapy program. He is a co-author of "Victimhood, Vengefulness, and the culture of Forgiveness" (Together with Ivan Urlic and Miriam Berger). He is a co-editor of "Sibling Relations and the Horizontal Axis in Theory and Practice". (Routledge, 2022) together with Smadar Ashuach and co-editor of “Tolerance – a concept in crisis” (Routledge, in print) together with Gila Ofer.
Anna Nicolo
Medical doctor, child neuropsychiatrist, past president of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society (SPI), psychoanalyst with training functions of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society (SPI/IPA), expert psychoanalyst of children and adolescents, psychotherapist of couples and families. In the course of her training and activity, including research, she founded many Societies and Associations in the field of psychotherapy and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. She has promoted the establishment of study and research groups and the creation of journals. She has coordinated and organized many congresses, conferences and seminars. 1987 Founding member of the Italian Society of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy of Childhood, Adolescence and the Couple (SIPsIA). 2000 Founding member of the Italian Society for Couple and Family Psychoanalysis (PCF), of which he was president from the date of its foundation to 2022. She participated co-founding the International Association of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis (IACFP), of which she is currently president. She is the scientific director of the journal Interazioni (Franco Angeli Ed.) and was the first director of the International Review of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis of the International Association of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis (IACFP/AIPCF). Member of the Committee of the Forum for the Psychoanalysis of Adolescents (of which she was Chair from 2005/2011) of the European Psychoanalytical Federation/Fédération Européenne de Psychanalyse (EPF/FEP). -Member of the IPA Clinical Observation 3LM Committee. -Member of the Société Européenne pour la Psychanalyse de l’Enfant et de l’Adolescent (SEPEA). -Member of the European Federation for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in the Public Sector (EFPP), where he also collaborated in the creation of the IV Couple-Family Section. -Honorary member of Laboratorio Italiano di Psicoanalisi Multifamiliare (LIPSIM). -Supervisor Reverie Community for young psychotics.
Catalina Bronstein
Prof Catalina Bronstein, MD, is a Fellow and Training analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society and Visiting Professor at the Psychoanalysis Unit, University College London’. Former President of the British Psychoanalytical Society.
She trained as a medical doctor and specialist in psychiatry in Buenos Aires. She is a child psychotherapist trained at the Tavistock Clinic in London and then became a psychoanalyst at the Institute of Psychoanalysis. She is a child, adolescent and adult psychoanalyst
Catalina Bronstein works at the Brent Adolescent Centre in London and in private practice with adults and adolescents. She has written and published many book chapters and papers. She also has edited a number of books : ‘ Kleinian Theory. A contemporary perspective’ which has been translated into many languages . She has co-edited with Edna O'Shaughnessy ‘Attacks on linking revisited’ . She also co-edited ‘The New Klein-Lacan Dialogues’ and ‘On Freud’s The Uncanny’ and in 2023,with Sara Flanders the book: Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis in a Changing World . Another book is in the pipeline : 'Neurosis and Psychosis Revisited' . She was former London Editor of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and now sits on the Board and on the Executive of IJP.
Katarzyna Skrzypek
Katarzyna Skrzypek is a psychologist, training psychotherapist and supervisor of the Polish
Society for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (PTPP) in private practice in Warsaw. She is a former president of the Society, former EFPP Delegate. She leads seminars for Candidates of the Society at the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program (PSP) in Warsaw. She is co-editor of “Siblings: Coexistence and Concern, Rivalry and Envy”, a book which brought together some of the papers from the EFPP conference that was held under this title in 2011.
Large Group conductors
Tammy Elad (Israel)
Works in private practice with individuals, couples and analytic groups as well as a supervisor of variety of groups in different organizations. Co-Conductor of Large Groups in conferences, and conductor of Small and Medium Groups in IGA and IAGP conferences.
Member of the IIGA and member of the Israeli Association of Group Psychotherapy; Staff member of the Tel-Aviv University Group Conductors Training Program.
Małgorzata Bajor-Wocial (Poland)
Małgorzata Bajor-Wocial - psychologist, group analyst, psychoanalytic psychotherapist, supervisor. President of the Hanna Segal Institute for Psychoanalytic Studies. She conducts individual and group psychotherapy for adults and the elderly.
Thor-Kristian Island M.D. (Norway)
Thor-Kristian Island M.D. is a psychiatrist, psychotherapist and group analyst from Oslo, Norway. He is co-founder and previous director of Institute of Group Analysis (Norway). He was also co-founder of the Norwegian Group Psychotherapy Association (NGPF), where he is now honorary member. He has been training group analyst, supervisor and theory lecturer, as well as one of the large group conductors at the group analytic training program in Norway for more than 25 years.
He is honorary member of the European Group Analytic Training Institutions Network (EGATIN), and he has been member of the management committee of Group Analytic Society international (GASi). He has been the IGA, Norway delegate to EFPP. He was member of the Board of Directors of International Association for Group Psychotherapy and Group Processes (IAGP) from 2000-2009, and from 2016-2022. He is editor of the IAGP Globeletter. He has also been involved in the IAGP group psychotherapy training project in Ramallah, Palestine. He is current teacher and trainer at the Chinese-Norwegian advanced training program in psychoanalytic and group analytic psychotherapy in Beijing, China.
He has published papers on Large Groups and on group analytic training. He has conducted large groups at numerous international conferences.
Social Dreaming Matrix 1 conductors
Gila Ofer, Ph.D. (Israel)
Gila Ofer, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist, training psychoanalyst, and group analyst. Dr. Ofer is co-founder and past president of The Tel-Aviv Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis (TAICP) and a founding member of The Israeli Institute of Group Analysis (IIGA). She serves on the faculty of both institutes and at the Post-Graduate School for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Tel-Aviv University.
Dr. Ofer has been the chair of the group analytic section, a board member of the EFPP, and, later, the coordinator of Eastern European countries. Currently, she is the editor of the EFPP Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Review. She has published her work in leading journals, presented her work, and taught in Israel, Europe, East Asia, and the US. Her edited book “A Bridge over Troubled Water: Conflicts and Reconciliation in Group and Society” was published in 2017.
Joanna Skowrońska (Poland)
Training group analyst, supervisor and teacher of psychotherapy in the training of the Institute of Group Analysis "Rasht" Former chairperson of the Training Committee, responsible for the training of supervisors. Certified Psychotherapist of the Polish Psychological Association. Graduate of the training for supervisors: Using the Group as a Medium of Supervision at the Institute of Group Analysis in London. She is interested in the factors shaping relationships between people and the applicability of small group analysis in different social contexts. Recent publication on this topic : What happens when you cut a worm? - group members as peers, in Sibling Relations and the Horizontal Axis in Theory and Practice Contemporary Group Analysis, Psychoanalysis, and Organization Consultancy; edited by Smadar Ashuach, Avi Berman (Routledge).
Co-editor of 2023 published: Supervision in psychotherapy, a group-analytic approach, PWN.
Social Dreaming Matrix 2 conductors
Robi Friedman, PhD. (Israel)
Robi Friedman, PhD. is a Clinical Psychologist and Group Analyst, Past President of the Group Analytic Society (International), of the Israeli Institute of Group Analysis and the Israeli Association for Group Psychotherapy. He is a Vice-President Member and co-founder (together with Volkan and Alderdice) of the International Dialogue Initiative (https://www.internationaldialogueinitiative.com ). He writes on group approaches to working with dreams, psycho-pathology in relations and about the Soldier’s Matrix: societies of individuals in war. He is a teaching group analyst in the Zurich Institute for Group Analysis, and works regularly with Institutes in Ukraine, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Russia and China. His combined small/large groups model, called the Sandwich model, is also applied in his initiative of conflict dialogue meetings between Jews and Germans titled “Voices after Auschwitz” (https://igd2023.weebly.com).
Markus Schirpke (Germany)
Markus Schirpke is a psychologist and psychodynamic psychotherapist who works in individual and group settings, in his own practice, as a lecturer, supervisor and training therapist at the Berliner Akademie für Psychotherapie (BAP), as a trainer at the Psychologische Hochschule Berlin (PHB), at the Berliner Institut für Gruppenanalyse (BIG) and at the Institut für Psychologische Psychotherapie (ppt). He is head of the training department of psychodynamic group therapy at the BAP. He works as a coach and supervisor for teams. He is a supervisor BDP, group analyst and training group analyst D3G, gestalt therapist DVG and hypnotherapist M.E.G. Publications on the therapeutic handling of nightmares, group analytic supervision, experience-oriented psychodynamic training groups and social dreaming. For many years he has hosted social dreaming in national and international contexts.
Supervisor for Discussion Group conductors
Hanne-Sofie Johnsen Dahl (Norway)
Hanne-Sofie Johnsen Dahl is a specialist in clinical psychology, a group analyst, a psychoanalyst, and holds a PhD in psychotherapy research with a focus on transference and countertransference. She is still working on different research projects; last project was on psychoanalytic short-term groups for young adults with ADHD.
She is the director of IGA-Norway as well as a teacher, she teaches clinical psychology at the University of Oslo, and runs a private practice with individual and group therapy, as well as supervising both individuals and process groups within mental health care.